Baseball and softball organizations periodically publish and update equipment standards and/or requirements including performance limitations for ball bats. It is not uncommon for ball bat manufacturers to adjust the design and/or construction of their ball bats to ensure that such bats satisfy the new or updated standards. In many instances, the challenge is to develop designs that fully satisfy such standards, while providing the player with beneficial characteristics, such as exception feel, consistency, reliability and performance.
One recently issued standard is the Bat-Ball Coefficient of Restitution (“BBCOR”) Standard adopted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”) in 2009. The BBCOR Standard, which becomes effective on Jan. 1, 2011, is a principal part of the NCAA's effort, using available scientific data, to maintain as nearly as possible wood-like baseball bat performance in non-wood baseball bats.
Wood ball bats provide many beneficial features, however, they are prone to failure, and because wooden ball bats are typically solid, wooden bats can be too heavy for younger players even at reduced bat lengths. Accordingly, there is a need to produce a ball bat that shares many of the beneficial characteristics of wood bats without the negative characteristics, such as, durability, weight, design flexibility, etc. Non-wood bats provide greater design flexibility and are more reliable and durable than wood bats. Non-wood bats include bats formed of aluminum, other alloys, composite fiber materials, thermoplastic materials and combinations thereof.
The BBCOR Standard adopted by the NCAA is believed to eliminate discrepancies with different bat lengths and is intended to be a more direct measure of bat performance. The NCAA Rules Committee determined, based on a large sample of wood bats tested, that an appropriate maximum value under the BBCOR standard is 0.500. The 0.500 BBCOR performance limit is just slightly higher than the best available wood bats in the NCAA database.
Many baseball bats currently in the market are not designed or produced to meet the BBCOR Standard including the 0.500 BBCOR bat performance limit. Accordingly, a need exists for baseball bat constructions that can meet the BBCOR Standard including 0.500 BBCOR performance limit while retaining acceptable playability characteristics for players, including durability, feel, weight, etc. There is also a need for a baseball bat construction that optimizes the performance of the bat under the BBCOR Standard and the 0.500 performance limit.
In 2002, DeMarini introduced its Half-n-Half™ line of softball and baseball bats that decoupled the handle portion and barrel portions of the bat. The DeMarini Half-n-Half™ construction, as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,702,698, 6,743,127, 6,945,886, 7,097,578 and 7,410,433, greatly enhanced ball bat design flexibility enabling the handle and barrel portions of ball bats to be specifically tailored for particular applications, player types and/or desired performance. The construction of the handle portion and barrel portions could be formed of entirely different constructions and each optimized for the desired performance characteristics.
It would be desirably to develop a ball bat that builds on the DeMarini® Half-n-Half™ model enabling even greater ball bat design flexibility and optimization.